Running out of diesel, no wind.

[Seman]

]A friend of mine run out of diesel in the South Pacific on his Beneteau 400. He still had about 40lt of Petrol (gas) left. Here is his report:

Requesting advice from Walter, and his suggestion I feed the crew beans, followed by use the 2.5HP Suzuki tender motor. Of course he was joking, how could a 2.5hp tiny motor propel 10 tonnes worth of floating caravan? Apparently not, and this is where I announce the hero of the trip 'Suzi', we set her up on the swim ladder and she carried us for over 60nm at from between 3-4 Knotts in speed.

[Adelie]

No surprise here. The outboard pushing at a speed well below hull speed would be really efficient if comparatively slow..

[barnakiel]

I am surprised a 40' Bene is 10 tons (but it is). Doh.


Anyways, you want 2 hp per each ton to drive her to hull speed in flat water.



However, you need only .25 hp per ton to get her to 1 sqrt lwl speed. Thus a 2.5 hp outboard should be fine to pull her into a lee side Pacific anchorage or a sheltered marina.


Benes sail very well. You do not need any stinky diesel. Sure it is nice to have some.


(Very odd one can 'run out of diesel'. As if tanks did not have gauges today.)


Cheers,
b.

[Attikos]

Line up the crew on the stern, have them face forward and drop their pants, then after all those beans you'll have enough jet propulsion to get you home.

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

(Very odd one can 'run out of diesel'. As if tanks did not have gauges today.)

I consider my fuel gauge to be worthless. I log engine hours and RPM and with a hundred gallon tank I can calculate my fuel usage within a gallon or two if I've done a good job.

On a 1500 mile passage to Virgin Gorda had to motor way more than expected. Left with 120 gallons (20 on deck). And used 115 of it to get in sight of land. Needed that last five gallons within 15 minutes of our calculations lol.

[billknny]

Originally Posted by Seman

]A friend of mine run out of diesel in the South Pacific on his Beneteau 400.

WTF? How on earth does THAT happen????

Short of a sudden and serious leak in the fuel tank---
Was nobody paying attention?
No fuel budget?
No daily checks?
I seriously hope he is monitoring his freshwater use way better than his diesel use.

Some people just shouldn't be out there....

[Paul L]

Dropping the dinghy in and side tying to the main vessels quarter works pretty well if there's not large seas or strong anti-current.

[oleman]

Ask how does a vessel run out of fuel?
Was in a task force with other military ships in the South Pacific.

Before anyone complains, American military ships had a specific refuel policy.

Being near American Samoa one ship was assigned there for refueling.

Whoever approving the refueling did not consult with the local diesel distributor. The whole island chain did not have that much reserve fuel. The ship remained in port while the Oiler with us made a trip to American Samoa to refuel the other ship. Nice to have a gas station in the group!

[a64pilot]

Far and away the biggest reason for engine failure in aircraft is fuel starvation.
Yeah, I know it sucks to run out of fuel in a boat, but it sucks worse in an airplane, yet it happens

[model 10]

I ran out of fuel in an airplane once and crashed. A dip stick and watch works perfect if you don't have a leak.

[picklesandjesse]

Originally Posted by billknny

WTF? How on earth does THAT happen????

Short of a sudden and serious leak in the fuel tank---
Was nobody paying attention?
No fuel budget?
No daily checks?
I seriously hope he is monitoring his freshwater use way better than his diesel use.

Some people just shouldn't be out there....

You'd be surprised. 30 years ago we had a shipping company and a ship we used to charter to carry grain from Australia to Lae in PNG ran out of fuel. We had approved through the agent to put on 40 tonnes in Pinkenbar in Brisbane. The captain was very busy with all the inspections etc that happen when loading grain. He forgot to order the fuel and sailed without it. He was pumping from the aft tanks and she ran out 150 miles SE of Lae. There was an HF radio message to Rabaul Radio stating his Lat and Long and that was it. He locked himself in the bridge, crew were frantic. Complete radio silence after that. Lloyds heard about it and cancelled the insurance. I had to do a deal with a Morobe Province politician and borrow ($$$$$) an old Gardner powered vessel to carry 30 X 44gal drums of fuel to them. Just had a compass to navigate to the last known spot, no log etc, luckily the ship had drifted back to roughly the same position and we floated the drums over to the ship. This whole event was denied by the Captain and myself when the ship arrive in Lae the next day. Bit of an adventure. We didn't have to pay the owner for the those lost days !!!

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Ecos

I ran out of fuel in an airplane once and crashed. A dip stick and watch works perfect if you don't have a leak.

We have no fuel gauge, instead a garden cane marked in 5 gal intervals. Straight down the filler and clang when it touches the bottom of the tank.

The water tank has a clear plastic hatch in the lid so you can peer in.

I like simple things on the yacht that don't go wrong or require fixing.

Pete

[a64pilot]

I have always though this accident very interesting. Some days you just have a bad day, other’s I swear the cards are stacked against you.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

[Dave22q]

I agree that a little gas outboard can push a heavy sailboat fairly well. My choice was carry a few extra diesel cans and no gas. Now switched to electric outboard and one less thing to worry about. For my fellow dipstick users, I find that marking gallons rather than every 5 works well. Makes efficiency (mpg) tracking much easier.

[a64pilot]

There is also a story of someone gliding a DC-9 safely with no injuries onto a dike in Louisiana, it seems during the maintenance check the fire pull handles were cross wired, so when number #1 fire handle illuminated, the crew did what they were supposed to, shut down #1 engine and pull its fire handle, pulling the fire handle closed the fuel valve, and being cross wired #2 shut down, there are only two engines.
I can’t find that on the Internet though.